Hui Hai (720-814)
Q: How is the fundamental Dharma to be practiced?
A: Only through meditation and dhyana contemplation in samadhi. The Dhyanaparamita Sutra says: “To seek the wisdom of Buddha, you need both dhyana and contemplation. Without dhyana and contemplation together, thought will be disordered and break the root of goodness.”
Q: What is dhyana and what is contemplation?
A: The non-arising of a single thought is dhyana. The original nature is your uncreate Mind. Contemplation in samadhi happens when opposites and external objects do not cause a single thought to arise. In contemplation (samadhi), the mind cannot be moved by the so-called eight winds: benefit and loss; fame and ignominy; praise and ridicule; suffering and happiness. If only one can abide in this kind of contemplation, then, even though he is a worldly person, he, nevertheless, can enter Buddhahood. The Sutra of Bodhisattva Discipline says: “All sentient beings who receive the discipline of the Buddha thus assume the position of all Buddhas.” Achieving this state is called “liberation”. It is also described as arriving on the other shore by leaping over the three realms of samsara … Such a one is a great, powerful Bodhisattva with immeasurable sway and influence as well as a conqueror of all obstacles.
Don’t use any techniques or devices that will retard your spiritual progress. The unattached Mind is won through unobstructed Dhyāna (Jhāna in Pali) in union with Samādhis (Contemplation of the Unitive Unborn Principle). These measures are wrought exclusively through the Bodhisattavic Discipline that is fashioned after the meditative life of the Tathagatas. Procuring Deep Samādhis in such a manner cultivates the one-pointed precision that slices through all skandhic obstructions: this is known as sitting in the Bodhimanda of Wisdom Itself, the chair of Mañjuśhrī.